Digital Yuan app adds prepaid Mastercard Visa top-ups for tourists ScrgruppEn

Tourists planning to visit the People’s Republic of China can now pre-load their digital yuan wallets with Visa and Mastercard payment options, as the country continues to update the mobile app powering the beta version of its central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The e-CNY app, which is still in beta, is available to iOS users and Google Play Store users in China. The app serves individual users, allowing them to open digital yuan wallets to use e-CNY.

According to the latest iOS app to update Version 1.1.1 was published on September 22, and supports the top-up service with international card options.

According to a number of local Chinese media, the latest release of the e-CNY application coincides with the start of the Asian Games.

China has extensively experimented with using the digital yuan as a payment option for foreigners visiting the country. According to Yicai, the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 marked the beginning of the beta opening of central bank digital currency (CBDC) to tourists as a way to transact with local merchants using the CNY e-currency.

Incoming tourists are said to be able to utilize overseas mobile phone numbers to register, open e-CNY wallets and take advantage of the recharge wallet feature, which now supports Visa and Mastercard payments.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, China is taking steps to ensure the digital yuan is available as a payment option for all retail payment scenarios. This would make the digital yuan a ubiquitous payment method in China among retail users and merchants.

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